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I've finally gotten time to start going to the planning
meetings for Altwheels (http://www.altwheels.org), and at the last one began getting
this crazy idea that maybe what I can do this year is help
the people who *aren't* going to run out and buy a hybrid car
tomorrow -- by using better technique in what they drive today.
You guys have provided some fine examples, and if the common redneck
can be convinced to be more interested in saving money and less
in heating the air in the vicinity of the next red light, they
should be given a concise, clear set of guidelines. We're not
sure what form this will take, but it could easily wind up being
a certain long-haired weirdo ranting away under a pop-up tent
out on Boston City Hall Plaza for a couple of days and handing
out flyers with the good poop on the subject.
.
So what I'm looking for, and this could easily become a CMPG
group project with all due attribution, is collect all the best
guidelines for better FE in whatever people currently drive.
Obviously the common-sense major stuff will be listed, like get
the tires right up to sidewall pressure, drive much more gently,
etc -- and it's probably the driving-style advice that most people
will have the heaviest mental filters thrown up against right
up front. I need a convincing way to tell them "stop driving
like a butthead", but phrased in a much more positive fashion.
Coupled with that, I'm looking pretty much for a list in
decreasing order of effectiveness, i.e. the best techniques/
mods at the top, of what people can do RIGHT NOW to save money
on fuel. And I want to make them feel good about it, so they
regard hybrids simply as better tools to achieve what they can
already do rather than adversarial smug-cloud generators that
hold them back on the roads.
.
Is this just too much to ask? Is it too likely I' d be 100%
preaching to the choir at something like Altwheels in the first
place? They're expecting to draw something like 20,000 people
with the fairly central-in-the-city location for two days, and
then move to their more traditional auto-museum spot for the
third. And they've got a week of lectures and exhibits before
all this goes down. The festival has definitely moved to the
next level and I heard some very big names bandied around the
table at the most recent meeting. *Two* people from WBZ, the
major AM clear-channel news station in Boston, were present and
very enthusiastic. This could really be a good forum to simply
espouse different thinking on the road.
.
_H*

1) drive slower. Drop your speed by 5mph you can do this on any road without worry of getting run over.
2) inflate the tires up to max sidewall or as high as you can stand.
3) look ahead at traffic 500 feet, not just 1 or 2 cars ahead.
4) keep an eye on your fuel gauge every trip, being aware that you are using gas will keep you focused on trying to save it.
5) decellerate to a stop sign or light from further away than you normaly would.
6) try to avoid any sudden speed changes.

7. drive like you have an egg under your foot
8. realize that you don't always need the air on

10. Use momentum. Let up on the gas when you crest a hill and coast down the other side. Let it Glide!

Hobbit, this is a great idea. You have an opportunity and I think it's great that you are seizing it. Congratulations in advance, as I'm sure that enough people will listen.

Hi Hobbit:

___Do you want the full blown Hypermiling article Tom and I have in the works for HF2006 or just general tips and tricks? I did not want to publish the Hypermiling article until HF but for something like this, we might be able to rush it a bit?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Well, no, don't rush on my account. Altwheels isn't till September,
and now since I'm pretty much in the process of committing to
Hybridfest I figured I could talk to bunches of you about it out
there at higher bandwidth. That's one reason to be around for
more time than just the festival day, to hobnob and kick ideas
around and all that. So yeah, it sounds like you're already
thinking about "writing the book" and that's exactly where I want
to be helping. There's time to get all this together, I'm just
floating the idea early cuz it's going to take a bit of work.
.
_H*

Invest in a ScanGuage - if they see their instantaneous MPG, they will have some incentive to change their driving habits.

Invest in a ScanGuage - if they see theirinstantaneous MPG, they will have some incentive to change their driving habits.


i really believe this is true. the owner of our company, who is quite an environmentalist, and was very impressed when i got my HCH, has always wanted a hybrid, but says his wife has such a lead foot that it wouldn't make a lot of difference. she also tends to go full speed and stop at the last minute instead of just slowing down. well, he got her a prius, and darned if she isn't starting to notice what happens and how she affects what's going on.....

now, if we could only get them in those dodge hemi trucks

Okay, I'm not entirely sure about the "egg under the foot" thing
since we do want to encourage something a little closer to DWL
than that, right? What I'm wondering is what people can easily do
to mitigate the idling problem, *without* using the key to force
an ICE stop because as soon as you try to tell them to do that,
they're going to say "NFW" and reject the whole idea. I'm thinking
how to appeal to the soccer-mom in her automatic-only Caravan
or Tahoe here, who can clearly benefit from being gentler in
general and anticipate conditions ... but should still accelerate
in a somewhat authoritative manner for that high-load efficiency,
just for a little less time, and then try to "glide" ... but
should that maybe be with the tranny popped into Neutral and
the ICE still idling? That would probably defeat deceleration
fuel-cut, in fact, on cars that do that... I would certainly
encourage moving to N at stoplights, to avoid dragging the fluid
coupler around and blowing off even more waste heat, but I'm
not sure what incremental difference that would make.
.
The major things I see are tires and behavior, but I want the
latter to be in the form of some simple suggestions that make
sense even to people who think they're in a hurry but are willing
to at least listen to a small fraction of an elevator pitch.
.
_H*

I'm thinking how to appeal to the soccer-mom in her automatic-only Caravan
or Tahoe here, who can clearly benefit from being gentler in
general and anticipate conditions ... but should still accelerate
in a somewhat authoritative manner for that high-load efficiency,
just for a little less time, and then try to "glide" ...

Well, I'm not so sure you really want to encourage "authoritative" acceleration because there are a couple of problems with it. Even though the engine operates slighly more efficiently under high-load conditions due to reduced pumping losses, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are using the power efficiently. Part of the problem is that these soccer-beasts are all automatics, as you point out, which will hold off on shifting gears if the load is high enough. My experience, and that of others, is that high revs are very bad for FE.

The other problem with higher rates of acceleration/higher engine load is that it encourages acceleration beyond the speed that a driver really needs, resulting in greater need for brakes at the next light. So even if it were more efficient, it would require a very disciplined driver to resist that urge. In other words, I think that's a bit much for the masses to handle in an introductory pamphlet on efficient driving. In my opinion it is imperative to get people started with the "low fruit" of FE driving and build them up to the hard stuff. As you have pointed out, to do otherwise imposes a strong risk of generating the "NFW" reflex that we all know so well.

Based on what I've read at forums like GH, "Drive Without Brakes" is a very easy concept for the average driver to grasp. Manny folks over there refer to it as the best single piece of advice they have received on FE driving. Gentle acceleration is also intuitive, as is encouraging use of cruise control, stringing trips together, and controlling maximum speed at all times. (Telling people to stay under the posted speed limit is a good way to get started.) Transitioning people to the really sophisticated "higher fruit" poses a whole new set of questions, but IMO it will be easier to do it once they get to "stage zero," or driving in such away that they can meet the EPA numbers most of the time rather than balking at them.

I had a small inspiration on this yesterday, which might help.
A question to put to the person who tries to dart around and
play traffic like a video game: "do you ever go on a trip
by flying?" ... to which the answer is very likely to be yes,
and then point out "do you think airline pilots ever try to
mess with traffic patterns around airports and get ahead of other
planes, or break rules, or ignore what the tower tells them?"
.
... which might get them thinking a little. Follow up with "any
pilot that *did* try that sort of stuff is likely to lose his
ticket within milliseconds of touching down."
.
Besides, the way airplanes work, especially large ones, is
surprisingly akin to DWB. Big airliners have to begin their
decelerations *way* in advance, and those little spoiler flaps
that rise out of the wings certainly don't provide enough stopping
power to get from 600 mph down to 200 in a few seconds. Lots
of good long-range-planning, predictive behavior examples there.
Which may help the listener understand some of the reasons air
travel is a lot safer than driving, as a rule...
.
_H*

Bump.
.
A friend mentioned to me today that they have "driving for FE"
training courses in Sweden and possibly other places. A little
googling found it -- there's an outfit called Motiva, that is
training people in "Ecodriving" -- originally aimed at big-rig and bus
drivers, but beneficial to ordinary car drivers as well. They've
got a site at http://www.ecodriving.com/eng
.
What I haven't figured out is how they get the general populace
to buy into it...
.
_H*

Under the Way of Thinking section there is a test. I scored 22 of 25. Dont know what that means but I could have scored better if the translation was better.

I don't know, is it better to resurrect an old thread to continue
a discussion a month+ later, or start a new one? Let's see if
this works.
.
First, deepest appreciation to our hard-working administrators
for getting the board back on its feet! Hopefully you've found
an ISP with a clue -- hard to do these days, even for something
as simple as a colo cabinet. *sigh*
.
Anyways, Altwheels is coming and I've been working on my efforts
to convince the commoner about better driving technique. I would
love to get some editorial feedback from Those Who Know on this
before I hand out six thousand of them on City Hall Plaza later
this month... so please give it a look. The visual presentation,
however simple [but it must be a one-pager], can be seen at
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/freefuel.gif
and the text of it is at
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/freefuel.txt
if you want to grab any excerpts to quote or rewrite.
.
Cleanmpg.com fell out of the list on this one intentionally --
what we talk about here is *so* far advanced over the very basics
I'm trying to set forth here, that I think it would just be
too confusing. If the astute reader gets interested enough, they'll
find those more in-depth resources on their own.
.
Thanks for whatever input you want to put into this, folks. Even
though fuel prices appear to be going down again, this is a
chance for the whole FE idea to get high visibility here in
Beantown and beyond.
.
_H*

Hi Hobbit:

___It was sad that you did not include CleanMPG in your handout/write up. The advanced techniques discussed here are the ones that double the EPA. The basics are those that can easily push most to 25 - 50% above EPA combined. Max sidewall, Smart Braking, Speed kills FE, DWB, PP, and Rabbit timing should be in everybody’s vernacular for achieving higher FE. These terms are not advanced, just plain and simple common sense ...

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hobbit: A colorful headline, if you please. It would be easy to suggest (roughly) what range of dollars per year we are talking about, per year. A compromise position on mentioning cleanmpg might be to preceed the link with "For even more ideas" or something like that.

DAS

I've been active around the net about this but I'm not bold enough to really go public in person other than friends, family and collegues.

The method I've used is to:

#1 Establish authority and to get attention through experience (Much easier to accept FE tips from someone getting 60MPG rather than another who gets 40 in the same vehicle)

#2 Establish trust and intrigue by providing links to examples of others who do well, and especially non-hybrid and non-diesel cars.

#3 Point out that it requires effort and dedication "Training" is the word I've used but might be too strong of word. This helps to weed out the chaff.

#4 Give a few simple basic tips and when asked for more I link to more detailed suggestions like this:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510
By not posting advanced tips tends to avoid the "I can't do that" or "You shouldn't do that" type arguments which tend to hijack the point.

#5 Avoid at all costs any appearance of "You should, or you need to do this" kind of attitude.
People are curious about hypermiling, quick to jump to negative conclusions and easily offended.

#6 I also know the fuel bill of most SUV and other large vehicle owners is just killing them. Yup they need help too. Posting hatred of these and their drivers alienates a large segment of readers and risks giving the general appearance of some kind of extremist.

Hobbit I don't know what you can use from this but is what I've been doing.
-Steve

Wow, Wayne, you sound really disappointed. Rightly so, I imagine.
I'll try to get cmpg back in there, but frankly from what I see
of the people around here I just don't think many of them are
ready for cmpg-level work without getting the very very basics
down first. So many of the suggestions from the previous bit
of text [with which I started this thread and is still hung out
there] fell out for this purpose, simply targeting the top two
or three things and the vastly overpowering one being all about
driving style. Tires, sure, but these people *have* to start
learning that travel on the public ways is not a racetrack.
.
Colorful headline, as in ink color, or different phrasing? I
don't have a color printer handy, and reproducing lots of color
copies would be *wikkid* expensive by comparison. And if I've
gone wrong with a big eye-catching FREE FUEL thing, please clarify.
Last year I did the "flyer thing" to try and help publicity
for Altwheels -- took their stock flyer, crunched it down a little,
and put a huge "100 MPG?" across the top in a similar fashion.
I think it was a decent attention-grabber that way.
.
I believe I can speak with reasonable authority ... last several
tanks have ended at 60 or better average, which isn't off the
charts by any means but still amazes people when they learn that
it's from mixed driving, cold starts, normal stuff. At Altwheels,
I think the car will be out there on the Plaza anyways and serve
as my handout-table.
.
I tried to mostly avoid the "you should" attitude in the wording,
although I do need to keep a *little* force behind it. But I'm
hoping that what I've got so far comes across in a "this can
help you" way -- if it's too strong, it probably needs to be
moderated down even farther. Gotta strike a balance between a
solid statement and "why can't we all just get along?" whining.
.
I had a Moment last weekend in the course of helping someone
move; we were sort of all convoying a bunch of cars to the new
place and one of the crew did a total butthead pass around me
for no reason and proceeded to hang on *another* crew-member's
butt with the periodic brake-light flicks and the whole nine yards
of Readily Identifiable Bad Driving. We got to the new place,
and once we were out of the cars I just let him totally have it.
Lots of "you need to" in that rant, I assure you, but I think in
that setting, meeting blatant stupidity with a blatant "you're
being an ass" reaction was called for. I think he got the message.
Especially when he realized that we all got to the destination
at the same time and his style had gained him nothing.
.
Well, anyways, thanks for the comments so far. Hopefully I'm
expressing the context for all this clearly enough. I'll take
another pass through it soon..
.
_H*

Hi Hobbit:

___I forgot another easy one … DWL.

___My main point is as shown in every major article posted here at CleanMPG.

Speed Destroys FE!

I want to bring to everyone’s attention actual Speed vs. FE data many here may not be familiar with in a number of high FE hybrid vehicles. With them, I believe you will see why it is so easy to achieve and exceed the FE posted on the side of your new car when cruising down the roadway.

Prius II (EPA city/highway: 60/51 mpg) Constant speed tests - MPG Results

Conditions: 73 degrees F - Tire pressures 47 psi - no A/C - 1.0 mile distance at steady state speed.

With Cruise Control||
Run #|50 mph|60 mph
1|63.4 mpg|55.9 mpg
2|74.5 mpg|65.3 mpg
3|64.9 mpg|60.9 mpg
||
Averages|67.6 mpg|60.7 mpg

HCH-II (EPA city/highway: 49/51 mpg) - Constant speed tests - MPG Results

Conditions: High 70 degree temps - Tire pressures 40 psi - no A/C - 1.0 mile distance at steady state speed.

With Cruise Control||||
Run #|30 mph|40 mph|50 mph|60 mph
1|84.3 mpg|89.3 mpg|69.1 mpg|56.4 mpg
2|86.5 mpg|89.0 mpg|64.8 mpg|48.5 mpg
3|85.1 mpg|90.7 mpg|67.3 mpg|50.5 mpg
||||
Averages|85.3 mpg|89.7 mpg|67.1 mpg|51.8 mpg

Ford Escape Hybrid (EPA city/highway: 36/31 mpg) - Constant speed tests - MPG Results

Conditions: Mid 90 degree temps - Tire pressures 52 psi - no A/C - 1.0 mile distance at steady state speed.

With Cruise Control||||
Run #|30 mph|40 mph|50 mph|60 mph
1|56.8 mpg|56.2 mpg|51.2 mpg|42.0 mpg
2|62.3 mpg|56.0 mpg|51.8 mpg|42.5 mpg
3|57.8 mpg|56.0 mpg|51.1 mpg|42.5 mpg
||||
Averages|59.0 mpg|56.1 mpg|51.4 mpg|42.3 mpg

___Does anything else need to be pointed out? Maybe that the EPA rated 24/34 rated Accord does 50 at 50 when well setup in warmer temps and not driving stupid?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

just for the record my car clocks in at 50 mph at 50 mpg too! and mine is a civic ;( really makes me believe areodynamics is a huge factor to FE and should never be underestimated.

Driving with load rocks, at a stop I try to keep it 80 percent load to gain to target speed. Then when maintaining speed in city driving I try to keep it between 30 (flat) and 50% (climbing) load, I notice for sure mpg meters remained in the high 20's while gaining speed, and in the low 60's when maintaining speed.

Based on what's been discussed here and some feedback I got from
some of the Altwheels folks, I've got a new cut up at the same place:
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/freefuel.gif
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/freefuel.txt
[go ahead, ask me why I don't make it into a PDF instead..]
It will probably go through a few more edit cycles before it
hits the streets at the show. I'll also have the *previous*
"mpghints" file for those that show a little more interest, as well
as me standing there holding forth on the subject to anyone who
will listen. Which, I suspect, will still mostly be the choir
within the attendees of Altwheels, but maybe they've got friends
who they know drive badly and some propagation will happen.
.
_H*

Hi Hobbit:

___You done good :D

___I liked the athletic analogy as that might bring in some of the more sport oriented drivers possibly?

___Good Luck and it is indeed a great little write up.

___Wayne

Okay, I'm not entirely sure about the "egg under the foot" thing
since we do want to encourage something a little closer to DWL
than that, right? What I'm wondering is what people can easily do
to mitigate the idling problem, *without* using the key to force
an ICE stop because as soon as you try to tell them to do that,
they're going to say "NFW" and reject the whole idea. I'm thinking
how to appeal to the soccer-mom in her automatic-only Caravan
or Tahoe here, who can clearly benefit from being gentler in
general and anticipate conditions ... but should still accelerate
in a somewhat authoritative manner for that high-load efficiency,
just for a little less time, and then try to "glide" ... but
should that maybe be with the tranny popped into Neutral and
the ICE still idling? That would probably defeat deceleration
fuel-cut, in fact, on cars that do that... I would certainly
encourage moving to N at stoplights, to avoid dragging the fluid
coupler around and blowing off even more waste heat, but I'm
not sure what incremental difference that would make.
.
The major things I see are tires and behavior, but I want the
latter to be in the form of some simple suggestions that make
sense even to people who think they're in a hurry but are willing
to at least listen to a small fraction of an elevator pitch.
.
_H*

Putting the tranny in "N" allows the engine to rev (no turbine load) and, the engine(being an air pump) is gonna pump more air-and fuel! Fuel use is a function of airspeed in the induction system. Ie, leave it in drive at a stoplight.

1) drive slower. Drop your speed by 5mph you can do this on any road without worry of getting run over.
2) inflate the tires up to max sidewall or as high as you can stand.
3) look ahead at traffic 500 feet, not just 1 or 2 cars ahead.
4) keep an eye on your fuel gauge every trip, being aware that you are using gas will keep you focused on trying to save it.
5) decellerate to a stop sign or light from further away than you normaly would.
6) try to avoid any sudden speed changes.

There is (at least !) one more: Clean out your trunk! Lots of dead weight in there one will find useless!

i like the body with cars comparson, well put hobbit. When are they avaiable for printing?

There is (at least !) one more: Clean out your trunk! Lots of dead weight in there one will find useless!

Clean out the trunk! Where would people keep their "stuff".

Of course you are right. But no way I'm getting rid of my subs and amps!

If you wanted to print these, grab the latest version [in the
same two files] and use the .gif. It's bigger now, and should
have sufficient resolution to make good copy. The text has also
had yet more of the little political jabs whittled out of it,
as they seemed to leap off the page for some of the local friends
reviewing it as "potentially offensive", heh. Anyways, I think
it's close to ready, and I'm going to let it sit for a day or two
and see if it needs any more edits before heading to the copy shop.
.
Again, this is the *very* basics for the "potential choir". I will
probably never reach those teenagers that zoomed into the drive-thru
until they learn on their own from some possibly more life-changing
event, as sad as that is to consider. Maybe not even then. This
one-pager is aimed at the folks with the vaguest inkling of
concern but no idea where to start. For the more serious folks,
there's http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/mpghints.html
which gets into a little more explanation.
.
Thanks for all the feedback, whether it looks like I've taken any
given piece under advisement or not. I'm beginning to believe
that this and appropriate distribution might actually kick some butt
in the next couple of weeks. The Altwheels folks already love
it, and they haven't been tracking every edit to date.
.
_H*

One important sentence got added today, as a result of the fallout
from dealing with that rant sent in by a friend today [see
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2072 ]. Referring
to smooth driving, it reads:
__ That does not mean driving slowly, it means moderate acceleration
__ and braking with normal speeds in between.
.
Remember, even though I use the word "hypermile" in this document
down at the end it is not a treatise on hypermiling. It is to
give the unaware a glimpse at what's possible, and if they get
interested they'll chase the links and learn more. In the meantime
they maybe have a couple of things to try up front, such as get
the tires pumped up.
.
I haven't put up a fresh copy yet; still tweaking. The text is
*barely* fitting on one page.
.
In the meantime, I need help with another concept. I've got
a little chart that starts with an assumed base car that needs
20 HP to maintain speed at 60 mph, and extrapolates HP needed
to overcome air resistance at a range of other speeds based on
cubic increase relative to speed. So for the 20 hp @ 60 mph
car I get 47.4 hp @ 80 mph. Now, what I want to do is calculate
the gasoline used for the average 40-mile daily commute based
on that, including taking into account the fact that the engine
can *very generously* be considered 33% efficient and that two-
thirds of the gasoline burnt goes up as heat.
.
So what I get for our 40-mile commute is,
__ 60 mph for 40 minutes = 9.9 kwh propulsion = .85 gallon
__ 80 mph for 30 minutes = 17.6 kwh propul. = 1.5 gallon
Can someone who's handy with doing these calculations run the
numbers for me and tell me if I've got this all wrong? I want
to make up an actual chart of all this, maybe as a handout or
at least a storyboard thing to tape onto the car.
.
_H*

In the meantime, I need help with another concept. I've got
a little chart that starts with an assumed base car that needs
20 HP to maintain speed at 60 mph, and extrapolates HP needed
to overcome air resistance at a range of other speeds based on
cubic increase relative to speed. So for the 20 hp @ 60 mph
car I get 47.4 hp @ 80 mph.
Hi,

I think it is square...
20 * (80/60) ^ 2 = 35.6 hp @ 80 mph.

Yoshi

I thought FORCE went up as the square, and thus POWER (force
* velocity) went up as the cube? That's what I've heard
everywhere else.
.
_H*

Oh, it was my mistake...

However, the raw cubic value is too much, I think.
The driving resistance = rolling resistance + air drag.
One of the approximate value for NHW-11 Prius is...
N = 190 + 0.42 * V ^2
http://homepage.mac.com/inachan/prius/current.html


MPH m/sec N kW HP
60 26.8 492 13.2 17.7
80 35.7 727 26.0 34.9

So, my number for 80 mph is 1.97 times of 60 mph value.
Yours was 2.37.

Yoshi

Using these numbers and 33% engine efficiency and 35 KWh/gal
I get .75 gal burned for the 60 mph commute, and 1.11 gal
burned for the 80 mph. Still, almost a 50% increase in
consumption even taking the baseline RR into account. And
that's still a pretty dern efficient car!
.
As I concluded over in P_T_S, the numbers look scarier if I
leave out the RR baseline and besides, my chart is entitled
"the effects of air resistance" so it's slightly less likely
that someone's going to call BS on me...
.
_H*

Okay, I've got what I hope is the FINAL cuts of this handout up
for viewing. Tried to make it even less, uh, "antagonistic".
Please give it another quick look -- notable changes are in the
second "basketball" paragraph and the first bullet item.
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/freefuel.gif
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/freefuel.txt
.
No, I certainly don't expect to reach everybody with the message,
but maybe, just maybe, this can help expand a mind or two here
and there if I bloody BLANKET the boston area with the things.
This isn't just for Altwheels, I'm thinking -- drop a stack at
the gym, salt them into windowsills at pizza places, get 'em
into some of those [sadly, very limited] places that the "common
man" is allowed to use to try and bring his tiny little message
into the public eye. I did some of this last year with slightly
modified Altwheels flyers, and it was hard work and made me feel
like a spammer. But I think this one is a little more altruistic,
with true passion behind it and absolutely no money to be made
except by the reader, so it may be generally more acceptable.
.
And more impetus may arrive after Nov. 7, heh...
.
_H*

Okay, today's the day to "go to press" on all the Altwheels and
related stuff, and drop a couple of hundred bucks at the copy
shop. So of course last night, this close to the wire, I got
inspired and banged out another section to add to the secondary
document. What I've got is the "FREE FUEL" thing some of you have
commented on, and an update of the old "mpghints.html" file that
it stemmed from and I had handed out bunches of at the Ipswich
festival. The "mpghints" one is now sort of the advanced version
of the same thing, geared more toward the people who are genuinely
interested, and this is the new part that just flowed forth from
my fingers last night:
_
_ A word about other drivers
_
_ We live in a society that has learned a very competitive attitude
_ toward driving, mostly fostered by the automotive industry's
_ unwavering dedication to promoting way more speed and power than
_ anyone needs for normal transportation. All automakers are guilty of
_ this, even the ones that produce efficient cars. And it is entirely
_ misplaced in these times that demand more frugal use of resources.
_ There are some appropriate times and places for performance driving,
_ but they are NOT among normal traffic on the public roads.
_
_ A little perspective -- nobody expects neck-snapping acceleration
_ from a TRUCK, for instance, and yet millions of trucks get to their
_ destinations on time every day without needing any sort of "spirited"
_ driving. It is a greater challenge to keep the long-range view and
_ be both predictive and predictable on the road, than it is to simply
_ mash a pedal to fly toward the next red light. The overall difference
_ in travel time between the styles is miniscule to zero, and gentler
_ driving has so many savings and safety benefits.
_
_ As the pushy, impatient drivers see more people around them driving
_ for MPG rather than race-car performance, they may begin to learn
_ that there's a better way, but it won't happen overnight. In the
_ meantime, moderate drivers must coexist with aggressive drivers as
_ best as possible on the roads. So if you're driving to save fuel,
_ you must remain keenly aware of what is behind you as well as in
_ front and adapt to those conditions. If you are tracking the speed
_ of leading traffic (at a respectful distance, of course) and observing
_ posted speed limits, NOBODY can claim that you're "driving too
_ slowly" or blocking the road. If you can find a safe way to let the
_ aggressive tailgaters pass and blast ahead, let them do so but not in
_ a way that impedes your own progress or safety. They have NO right
_ to intimidate other drivers on the roads that they must share too.
_
_ Change starts locally. Give your friends some of the basic hints.
_ Tell them how you've improved your own MPG and lowered your stress
_ level, and if they get off that phone and pay attention and back off,
_ they can immediately have the same benefits too. They'll eventually
_ thank you from the bottom of their wallets, especially when they
_ realize that they CAN afford that efficient hybrid after all.
_
This is being put to bed within the afternoon, so there's no
opportunity to change it. It's a little preachy-to-the-choir
but that's likely what most of the Altwheels (http://altwheels.org/) attendance will be
anyways -- but the people who want to drive smart could probably
use a little vindication instead of the victimization they're
getting a lot of out there now.
.
Hard to believe I fired off this whole thread last June, and now
here we are two days out from the show. I appreciate everyone's
input -- even my alpha-male buddy who decided to take me to task (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2072)
on a litany of trumped-up charges which served merely to enlarge my
perspective on it all and adapt in a way that *better* asserts
my message.
.
A larger future challenge may to be getting law enforcement on board
with any of these ideas, since these days their involvement is
sadly lacking in situations that *really* need it.
.
Oh, right -- reference: mpghints.html (http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/mpghints.html) ... although the web server
over there is having some issues right now.
.
_H*

Hi Hobbit:

___The next time an event like Altwheels comes up, why not place it in the calendar (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/calendar.php)?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Okay... I had no idea that existed. A little late for
Altwheels, but future stuff...
.
_H*